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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23407765">what if i told you a story?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/notatallyourseed/pseuds/notatallyourseed'>notatallyourseed</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>ella's hatchetfield fics [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Friday - Team StarKid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, paul just loves his kids okay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:33:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,052</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23407765</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/notatallyourseed/pseuds/notatallyourseed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>paul tells his daughters the story of how he met emma.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Paul Matthews &amp; Emma Perkins, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>ella's hatchetfield fics [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what if i told you a story?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hey friends!<br/>this story takes place in the same universe of my story "the family they always wanted," so ethan is emma and paul's adoptive son and they have two young daughters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>one of emma’s favorite things to do was to listen to her husband tell their daughters stories. lia, who was now almost five, was much like her mother and she had quite a bit of sass. she liked to pretend that she didn’t believe her father’s stories, but emma knew her daughter and she knew that she believed him. their younger daughter, ivy, was only six months old, but she found her father’s voice very calming, and she liked to listen to him speak. it was basically the only way little ivy would go to sleep. it was around eight o’clock, and emma was in the bathroom, braiding her hair after her shower as she normally did before she went to bed. the door was open, as lia had come in and complained to emma about how she didn’t want to go to bed, a usual occurrence in their house.</p><p>  “daddy, can you tell us about what happened when you met mommy?” lia says, as ivy babbled on next to her. at only six months old, ivy was probably the loudest child emma had ever met. she also happened to look a lot like paul, with brown hair that was normally in a little ponytail on the top of her head, and she had her dad’s pretty blue eyes. lia looked exactly like emma did as a child, so they each had a kid that looked like them. emma smiled when she heard what her daughter said, thinking about the fact that it had been about nine years since paul and emma had met. that was crazy to emma - she felt like she had known paul her whole life, and she sometimes couldn’t remember what life was like before lia and ivy were born. becoming mrs. perkins-matthews was the best decision she had made in her entire life. she loved their little family so much, she just couldn’t believe how lucky she had gotten so lucky. </p><p>  “well, it started about ten years ago,” when paul sad that, emma’s eyebrows furrowed. he was correct, it had been ten years, but she didn’t necessarily like to think about how old she was. she was almost thirty-nine, and her baby - who she had had at thirty-four - was now almost a five year old. that was insane to her, “your mama used to work at a coffee shop, and i liked her a lot. i thought she was the prettiest girl in the whole world.”</p><p>  “but you always say I’M the prettiest girl in the whole world, daddy!” lia says, which immediately makes emma laugh. one thing her daughter didn’t lack in the slightest was confidence. she knew she was cute, and god, did she take advantage of that. she probably got that from her mom. emma knew she didn’t lack confidence either - she knew she was pretty good looking. but her husband still never shut up with the compliments.</p><p>  “you’re the cutest five year old in the world.” paul said, making emma smirk yet again. he was great at saving himself from his four year old’s wrath, “but i didn’t even really go there because i liked the coffee. i just liked to see your mom, but she didn’t even know my name. one day, we got to talking and i introduced myself. i kept going in there, and one day she asked me if i wanted to go out to lunch with her so we could talk some more. we went on a few dates, and then we fell in love. after we had been dating for about… four years? i asked her to marry me, and then we found out that we were gonna be having you, lia belle.” he says, smiling at his daughter, who had seemingly gotten very tired and was rubbing her eyes. </p><p>  “well when did you have ethan?” lia asks, making emma smile even wider. paul and emma had never adopted ethan, he was almost eighteen when he started living with them, and he had moved out after about a year and a half, moving into an apartment with his girlfriend lex, but he was still very close with the matthews family. paul and emma considered ethan to be just as much their kid as the girls were, even if he didn’t live with them. he was just their super cool grown kid. and the girls love him. </p><p>  “well, mommy actually didn’t have ethan like she had you and baby ivy. he moved in with us a few years ago because his old mom and dad didn’t take care of him anymore.” paul was also super good at explaining things to kids. emma would never understand that - she wasn’t nearly as good with kids as paul was, and that made her sad sometimes, but sometimes she was thankful for that, because paul never could’ve been the mean parent. he was too much of a sweetheart. emma didn’t have any issue being stern to her kids when she had to, somebody had to do it, “you love your brother, don’t you, lee?” paul says, stroking his daughter’s hair, as she had now snuggled against his side. lia nodded and yawned right as emma walked into the room.</p><p>  “alright, girls, it’s bedtime.” emma says, picking ivy up and kissing her forehead, making the baby snuggle her head against her mother’s shoulder. for how loud ivy was, she was easily redeemed by how sweet she was. she had always been a snuggly baby, which was nice, as lia had never really been very snuggly to her. she always was to paul, but never to emma. ivy loved to snuggle, so she would normally just cuddle to whoever was holding her.</p><p>  “noooo, mommy! i don’t wanna go to bed!” lia says, rubbing her eyes. she was clearly exhausted, which paul knew, so he picked her up, standing up off the bed and starting to walk her out of the room. lia hardly even noticed, as she was already half asleep. </p><p>  emma looked at ivy, who was falling asleep on her shoulder and smiled. she loved her girls so much, and she was thankful that she had ended up with paul. she loved him so much, and if they would’ve never met, the girls would’ve never been born.</p><p>  their life had turned out perfectly.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i really want my next kid to be a girl, can you tell? lmao</p><p>this story is actually inspired by my fiancee telling our sons the story of how we met, which was the cutest thing ever!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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